Iraq archbishop kidnappers wanted $1 million

MOSUL, Iraq Kidnappers of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop found dead in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul had demanded a $1 million (500,000 pounds) ransom, a senior police official said on Friday.

Paulos Faraj Rahho, the archbishop of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, was abducted on February 29 after gunmen attacked his car and killed his driver and two guards.

Rahho's body was found in an empty lot in eastern Mosul on Thursday and is due to buried on Friday. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has blamed al Qaeda for his death.

"Reports reached us that there were talks between the kidnappers and relatives of the kidnapped archbishop ... we heard that a ransom demand reached $1 million," said Brigadier-General Khaled Abdul Sattar, the police spokesman for Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.

Andraws Abuna, assistant to the Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, said there had been talks between Christian officials and the kidnappers but he did not know about the ransom.

The U.S. military also said it had no details about the ransom but U.S. commanders in northern Iraq have said the kidnappers may have wanted money.

Abuna said the Church in Mosul had received a call on Thursday telling them Rahho was dead.

Church members found his half-buried body in an empty lot and took it to Mosul morgue, Abuna said, adding he did not know who made the call.

Chaldeans belong to a branch of the Roman Catholic Church that practices an ancient Eastern rite and form the biggest Christian community in Iraq.

Rahho's death drew condemnation from the Vatican, U.S. President George W. Bush and Maliki.

Police said it was not clear whether Rahho, 65, had been killed or died of other causes. He appeared to have been dead a week and had no bullet wounds, police at the morgue in Mosul said. He was dressed in black trousers and a blue shirt.

Sattar said the body showed signs of decomposition.

A number of Christian clergy have been kidnapped and killed and churches bombed in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. A former archbishop of Mosul, Basile Georges Casmoussa, was kidnapped in 2005 but was released after a day in captivity.

Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho attends a press conference in Rome, November 23, 2007. Rahho, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop who was kidnapped in Iraq last month, has been found dead, Church officials in Rome and Baghdad said on Thursday. It was not clear if he died as a...

Reuters/Paul Haring/Catholic News Service/Handout

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Pope Benedict XVI (R) and the Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad, Emmanuel III Delly (C) speak with Chaldean archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho at the Vatican in an undated photo released March 13, 2008. Rahho, who was kidnapped last month, was found dead on Thursday, his body...

Reuters/Osservatore Romano

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Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho attends a press conference in Rome in this November 23, 2007 file photo. Rahho, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop who was kidnapped in Iraq last month, has been found dead, Church officials in Rome and Baghdad said on March 13, 2008. It was not...